K. Balagopal
(Published as opinion piece in Andhra Jyothy newspaper, 7 July 2009
Translated from Telugu by Kiran Vissa)

Gandhians thought he was a communist. Communists thought he was a
Gandhian. As for Narendranath, he used to work on both platforms without any
problem. He would fit into any forum that worked for the good of the people; he would
fit in and work. That didn’t mean he refrained from expressing his opinions. In fact, in
each group that he worked with, he would often bring in a different perspective, and
raise issues and questions which wouldn’t otherwise come up. He would ask Gandhians
about class exploitation.  He would question Communists about violence
and lack of democracy. Those who raise these questions from the outside are many. But
Naren used to work with both groups and raise these questions in their own forums.
This approach was not a clever strategy from Naren; it was simply integral to the
person that he was. He wholeheartedly liked anyone who worked for the common
good. He collaborated with Medha Patkar who worked to adopt Gandhian approach in
mass movements. He also admired communist Kolla Venkaiah and worked with him for
the implementation of land reforms.

Naren was not short on his own opinions and ideas. But he didn’t have an iota of
dogmatism. For instance, he believed that violence committed by anyone for any reason
was wrong. Yet when it came to civil liberties organizations which refused to condemn
violent people’s movements, he continued to work with them proactively. When Human
Rights Forum was formed and took a stand that they will condemn unjust use of
violence by naxalite groups, he raised a further objection saying that all violence is
unjust so we should not attempt to distinguish between just and unjust acts of violence.
Still, he continued to work with Human Rights Forum, taking on responsibilities actively.
At a stage when even the Communists were wondering whether there was any
land left for distributing to the poor, Naren started the “Movement for Implementation
of Land Reforms”, taking along Dalit groups and other activists. In his native district of
Chittoor, he dug up the details of available lands one by one – ceiling surplus lands
which have not been distributed to the poor, lands acquired by landlords through bogus
settlement titles and so on – adding up to thousands of acres, and went after Collectors
and Joint Collectors. No revenue officer who worked in the district in the past few years
would ever forget Naren. He also played a proactive role with the Lands Commission
which was formed as per the Maoists’ recommendations after the failure of the peace
initiative between them and the state government.

Once he believed in a certain principle, Naren couldn’t help following it in his
own life. Having graduated with an M.A. from Delhi University he could have settled into
a well-paid job and then received public accolades by speaking and writing about
progressive ideas. But that was not in his nature. He moved back to Hyderabad. Those
were days of frequent communal clashes in Hyderabad. With the belief that it is not
enough to just condemn communal ideology and communal politics but that it is
essential to organize and agitate for much-needed civic amenities in the Old City area,
he joined Hyderabad Ekta. He immersed himself in organizing free clinics in the old city.
When it was clear to him that Hyderabad was not his arena of action, he moved
to his native village Venktramapuram in Chittoor district along with his wife and
companion Uma Shankari who shared most of his ideas. While engaged in agriculture as
a farmer, he continued his work for social causes. He campaigned against liquor and
worked with the poor on giving up their addiction. He organized inter-caste weddings,
and went from village to village campaigning against discriminatory practices such as the
“two-glass system” and succeeded in many places. When he found that there were
several villages where Dalits had never cast their votes, he campaigned successfully to
get special voting booths established in Dalitwadas.

As a dryland farmer, he responded to the wrong policy approaches which
undermined agriculture through neglect and a flawed development paradigm. As
always, he believed that it was not enough to criticize the government, that we should
put in our own efforts to address the situation. In his own land, he practiced
experimental organic agriculture without using chemical pesticides and fertilizers. He
learnt by experience the practical difficulties of a single farmer attempting organic
farming. Though he faced disappointments, he never despaired because of his self-
deprecating nature and ability to make fun of himself even in difficult situations. He
wrote a book in Telugu about his experiences, titled  ఇట్లు ఒక రైతు (Yours truly, A
farmer), published recently by Hyderabad Book Trust.

Ever since the beginning of power sector reforms a decade ago, Naren
developed a response as a farmer using electricity and as an activist. He studied the
issues deeply and educated the public. He attended the public hearings of the Electricity
Regulatory Commission regularly every year with detailed analysis, critique and
suggestions. He used to train his colleagues and cajole them to ensure their
participation.

While it is now commonplace to agitate about the displaced and project-affected
communities, Naren worked on the displacement issue twenty five years ago at the time
of the Srisailam dam project when entire villages were summarily vacated. He gathered
information by talking to the affected people, and set up debates. He always liked to
bring issues to debate among the people. Rather than attend meetings in cities, he
preferred going from village to village by foot. Even as his brain cancer worsened by
formation of secondary tumors, he enthusiastically participated in foot marches against
Singareni open cast mining projects in Karimnagar district.

Not only did Naren do all this work, but he did it with a smile. A child-like smile
was his hallmark. He would cheerfully bring difficult issues to debate. When
Narendranath attended an organizational meeting, everyone knew that he intended to
bring up some debate. He used to argue persistently but never demeaned others. In our
movements and organizations, we often come across those who consider hurting the
other party as winning the argument. This is an important reason for organizations
splitting when faced with disagreements. As a person, Naren's nature was completely different from this.  This was true about him not only within organizations and movements, but also
in social conflicts. He hated injustice but he never hated any individual. I believe this is
what he understood as Gandhism. I don’t know how far Gandhi followed this principle,
but Narendranath followed it wholeheartedly. He proved that we can be partners in the
fight for justice without losing our humanity and good nature to the smallest extent.
When paying tributes posthumously, it is common to describe a person as
‘extraordinary’. But in the true sense of the word, there are only a few extraordinary
people in the world. Gorrepati Narendranath was one of them. It is truly heartbreaking
that cancer has taken away such a person from the world when he was just 57.

K. Balagopal is a lawyer and human rights activist in Hyderabad.

Related:  Harsh Mander, "What I learned from Naren ," The Hindu, 27 Sept 2009.
Gorrepati Narendranath, Dilemmas in Agriculture